Stay on target

In its eighth annual list of Worst Passwords of the Year, SplashData confirmed that folks are still using the same predictable, easily guessable codes.

Case in point: “123456” and “password” remain leading choices among idiots everywhere.

Variations on the numbered phrase—”123456789,” “12345678,” “12345”—round out the top five.

These not-so-secret codes, however easy to remember, put a target on users’ backs, making them an obvious mark for hackers (or a monkey with a keyboard).

Speaking of primates with power… President Trump debuted on this year’s list, with “donald” appearing as the 23rd most commonly used password (based on more than 5 million leaked on the Internet).

﻿“Sorry, Mr. President, but this is not fake news—using your name or any common name as a password is a dangerous decision,” SplashData CEO Morgan Slain said in a statement.

“Hackers have great success using celebrity names, terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online,” he continued, “because they know so many people are using those easy-to-remember combinations.”

SplashData’s Worst Passwords of 2018:

123456 (unchanged)

password (unchanged)

123456789 (up three)

12345678 (down one)

12345 (unchanged)

111111 (new)

1234567 (up one)

sunshine (new)

qwerty (down five)

iloveyou (unchanged)

princess (new)

admin (down one)

welcome (down one)

666666 (new)

abc123 (unchanged)

football (down seven)

123123 (unchanged)

monkey (down five)

654321 (new)

!@#$%^&* (new)

charlie (new)

aa123456 (new)

donald (new)

password1 (new)

qwerty123 (new)

Password management application provider SplashData estimates almost 10 percent of people use at least one of these 25 phrases. Nearly 3 percent have used the worst offender, “123456.”

“Our hope by publishing this list each year is to convince people to take steps to protect themselves online,” according to Slain.

“It’s a real head-scratcher that with all the risks known, and with so many highly publicized hacks,” he said, “that people continue putting themselves at such risk year after year.”